U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated on Saturday that the Trump administration did not assist defeated Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro in traveling to the United States following his electoral loss to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Bolsonaro landed in Miami days after a tight race that bucked broader regional trends, prompting the State Department to announce that he and his family would be granted U.S. visas.
Speaking to reporters in Atlanta during a gathering of Group of 20 top diplomats, Rubio clarified Washington’s stance.
“We didn’t facilitate anything,” Rubio told reporters.
“We had word that he had arrived in the United States. He had previously held a visa, and the president made a decision to allow him to enter the country,” Rubio said, adding that the U.S. government was not “involved directly in any of the moves that were made.”
Rubio mentioned that he met with Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira in Atlanta on both Friday and Saturday, and anticipated interacting with Brazilian officials again next month during a foreign ministers’ meeting hosted in France.
Bolsonaro has refused to concede the election, alleging fraud without providing evidence. His father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, similarly contested his own 2022 loss to Lula and is currently serving a 27-year prison sentence for plotting a coup.
Backed tacitly by U.S. President Donald Trump during his campaign, Flávio Bolsonaro faces multiple investigations in Brazil for corruption, money laundering, and tax evasion, and was previously ordered to surrender his passport over flight-risk concerns.
During an Instagram livestream on Friday, the senator from Rio de Janeiro—whose legislative term expires on February 1—reiterated his claims of political persecution.
In a written statement, the 45-year-old politician went as far as calling himself the “true president-elect of Brazil”—a label he later dialed back to “leader”—and likened his situation to historical figures such as Charles de Gaulle, who directed the French resistance from London during World War II.